This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Mohamed Fahmy: I'm a pawn in a geopolitical game

As the Canadian journalist faces a retrial on terrorism charges in Egypt, he explains the complex barriers to his freedom.

Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy says that as his retrial on terrorism charges in Egypt reaches a conclusion, he's confident that on the basis of the evidence — or lack thereof — he will be acquitted. (Hassan Ammar / AP)

Mon., June 22, 2015

The ongoing 18-month trial of we Al Jazeera journalists in Egypt has sparked unprecedented global debate about the rule of law, the ethics of journalism and free speech.

Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, the Egyptian president, decreed a deportation law in November 2014 while I was imprisoned for more than 400 days, to permit the extradition of non-Egyptian convicts or prisoners under investigation to their respective countries to serve their time or continue their trial.

Several weeks after the announcement, Egyptian secret service officers came to ask me to renounce my Egyptian citizenship so I could benefit from the new law. My initial reaction was an immediate refusal — I cherish both my Egyptian and Canadian citizenships. “This is from high above,’” I was told. “We want to help you get out of this case.”

The officer handed me a phone. To my surprise, it was a senior official: “Fahmy, we know you are patriotic and innocent,” he said. “Sign the documents. You can come back as a tourist and easily apply for it again. Nationality is in the heart, not just a piece a paper.”

I signed but still struggle today to describe the humiliating feeling as I stamped my finger prints on the official renunciation documents. I also signed an agreement that both the government and I would not disclose my renunciation in the media.

Article Continued Below

The decree stated that Ottawa would have to officially request my deportation and that is exactly what my lawyers and embassy did. We got assurances from both governments that it was a matter of days.

Sadly, an announcement from then Canadian foreign minister John Baird, who declared my deportation “imminent,” was premature.

My mixed emotions of joy for my buddy Peter Greste and the feeling of despair for myself got the best of me as I watched him freed while our third colleague Baher Mohamed and I faced a retrial.

The government in Egypt published confirmation of my renunciation of citizenship in the official paper. This was after I had already been wrongly framed as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood — designated a terrorist organization under Egyptian law.

There was never any evidence against me personally and the fact that I protested against the despicable group alongside millions of Egyptians didn’t resonate with the prosecutor who branded me as the ringleader of a terrorist group.

Overnight, I was branded as the man who “sold out” his country. Indeed, it was a first, for an Egyptian to drop his citizenship to get out of prison.

The backlash against me continued because my colleague Baher Mohamed held only Egyptian citizenship. Public opinion crystallized against a law that allows foreigners in the same case, facing the same charges, for the same evidence, to be let off the hook while their Egyptian co-defendants languish in jail.

In court I raised an Egyptian flag to make a point that nationality is not just a piece of paper. Indeed, I am planning to legally reclaim my citizenship at the appropriate time. I just hope Judge Hassan Farid, who is presiding over the retrial, understands that I am no traitor as he announces his new verdict next month.

Meanwhile the Canadian government has implemented a new law that allows ministers to revoke the Canadian citizenship of dual nationals convicted of terrorism. As I face bogus terrorism charges in Egypt, I now have to worry about Canada stripping my citizenship under this dangerous law that overrides the judiciary and tramples due process.

The failure of Stephen Harper’s government to gain my release when I renounced my Egyptian citizenship resonated again last month when the U.S. government won the deportation from Egypt of Mohamed Soltan, an American-Egyptian activist and Brotherhood sympathizer serving a life sentence, who had renounced his Egyptian citizenship secretly before his transfer was announced last month.

As my retrial reaches a conclusion I’m confident that on the basis of the evidence — or lack thereof — we should be acquitted, so that this long and very painful ordeal will be over and I can get on with my life. But I know this trial is influenced by factors other than evidence.

It is still possible that we will take the fall for violations committed by Al Jazeera in failing to obtain a proper operational licence, and that we will pay a heavy price for Qatar’s meddling in Egypt’s internal affairs — its well-documented sponsorship of the banned Muslim Brotherhood. I and my colleague have spent too long as pawns in geopolitical games in which we, as journalists, have no part. Perhaps our situation is a manifestation of the biblical tale of David the shepherd who defeated Goliath the mighty giant using only his slingshot and rock. But, the underdog here is only armed with words of truth and the world’s best lawyers who will hopefully prevail.

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com